


Osculum

by softestark



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon-Typical Violence, First Kiss, First Meetings, Historical References, Kissing, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Tags May Change, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:15:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25510423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softestark/pseuds/softestark
Summary: "His kiss still thrills me, even after a millennia"(Or five times Nicky and Joe kissed and one time they didn't)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 14
Kudos: 101





	Osculum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mereth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mereth/gifts).



> Hi!
> 
> Yes. I've fallen too :___________ but how to blame me tbh, this movie is amazing and Joe's and Nicky's chemistry and relationship are goals <3
> 
> I really like 5+1 fics and here's my contribution to the fandom with a fic that's enterely based on this two kissing. I have already planned all the chapters and I hope not to delay myself so much with the updates. Also, the tags may vary as I decide if I write more explicit content or not (you can tell me too what you'd prefer to read!) 
> 
> Not beta'ed and I'm not native in english, so sorry in advance for any mistakes. Also, I did a bit of research on the first Crusade but I don't intend this to be historical accurate, just to give it some historical semblance for the sake of context. 
> 
> I dedicate this to my friend because she's been so supportive with me writing about The Old Guard and she's overall amazing <3
> 
> (title means kiss in latin btw)
> 
>  **Warnings:** canon-typical violence, temporary character death.

**Jerusalem, 1099 AD**

Although he’s been in that land for almost two years now, Nicky just can’t get used to its climate. It’s not even the hot weather what drowns him day after day. It’s the lack of moisture, the wind lifting the sand against his eyes and the rough texture of stone beneath his feet. The lack of water could drive you mad in that place and Nicky feels closer to madness than to his God. And madness it's the only explanation for his current situation.

He glances at the man sitting near him, sharing a fire with him in the middle of nowhere, far from Jerusalem, the city that had been recently taken away from the muslims. Nicky doesn’t exactly know what he’s doing here and not in the city with his fellow men. The siege had been ferocious, the troops of Fatimids had been in the walls of the city, attacking the christians in the forecourt in front of the city and they had to go out to fight them in the sand, trying to avoid the infidels entering into the city, unsuccessfully. There it was the first time he saw Joe. He feel embarrassed —and something more— recognising to himself he hadn’t pay him much attention. He had saw an enemy and his duty was to end him. He spur the horse, passing the man and thrusted his sword against his belly. A quick death. But he didn’t notice the scimitar in the hand of the man and how fast he throw it against his belly, knocking him of the horse. The smell and taste of blood were dizzying him, bringing him closer to fainting. The death came quickly to him.

When he opened his eyes, the city had already been taken and near the walls there where only the bodies of the fallen. Nicky look at his belly and his throat went dry seeing the skin unblemished. He could still recall the throbbing pain, but his skin had no marks. He took his cross pendant in his hands and wandered around, suddenly feeling watched. But there was no one near him, just a man dragging himself over the floor. Someone who had been unconscious, surely. But he felt another twist in his stomach when he recognized the face of the man that had killed him. And which he had kill. He remember the sword going cleanly through his chest, a mortal wound. He gripped the cross until his fingers bled while the muslim got on his feet, watching him with the same surprise in his face. Their gaze lingering in each other’s eyes for a moment, right before they went for their weapons.

They fought many times and it all ended the same way. The weariness ended up exhausting them both but every time they woke up from sleep they continue to try and kill the other. They didn’t know how many days they spent like that, stopping to search for water and food, exhausted at night, without losing sight of one another. The need to finish the other, to fullfil the duty that had sent them both to the gates of Jerusalem prevented them for engaging in any kind of communication. The only sounds around them was the arabic and the genoese insults they threw against the other.

It came a moment, though, when their boiling blood got colder and logic imposed itself. The realisation that they simply couldn’t kill each other made them lowered their weapons. There must have been a reason for it and they wouldn’t find it if they continue with the fight. The muslim tried several languages, for the first time, and with a more decent greek than that of Nicky’s, he introduced himself.

_Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn al-Kaysani._

_Nicolò di Genova._

That’s how they ended up traveling together, sharing a fire in the night, avoiding the cities that had been taken by christians, where a muslim would not be welcomed. Nicky loses himself in the flames of the fire, reflecting on everything that had happened since he arrived to that dry land. Searching for an explanation to justify why he’s wandering the desert with a muslim by his side. He knows he had tried to do his duty, trying to kill him many times, over and over again. But he had started to try to kill him less and less, a ramble of thoughts telling him to stop, that there’s something more to it than just trying to kill that man. He knows what predestination means, but he didn’t expect to find it there and in that man. The first time they had share the fire together was the first day they didn’t try to kill each other. The brown eyes look at him over the flames and Nicky doubts everything they had taught him. He doubted when he ventured himself in the recently conquered Jerusalem, searching for supplies and a horse, and he witnessed the horror done against the muslim civilians in the name of his God.

He returns to Joe as a changed man and he founds in his brown eyes more warmth and compassion than there ever was in his faith companions. The truth that lies behind that thought makes him feel dizzy. They had promised him the pardon of his sins if he went to the Crusades to kill muslims. He could have return to Genova a different man, a man without fire in his veins, a man that could choose another path that wasn’t the celibacy of the church, the only path reserved to a man like him. But he went to Jerusalem seeking the absolution of his sins and God had put in his path a muslim and he had denied him the possibility of killing him.

Nicky can’t sleep that night. The desert is cold but he feels burning inside and he can’t decipher the look that Yusuf gives him all the time, nor he want to think on his efforts to communicate with his broken greek, just to receive a smile in reward. In daylight, the tension between them becomes almost unbearable, but it’s not the tension of two men that wants to kill each other and that scares Nicky. They hadn’t try to kill each other for months now. They travel together searching for a city who would lead them to a port to take them away from that land. Joe can’t go back home and Nicky doesn’t ask why. He doesn’t ask either if he’s going to accompany him, because the answer feels too obvious but hearing it is too heavy and Nicky doesn’t have enough strength to bear the truth that’s starting to grow between them. He knows he doesn’t want to lose sight of Joe and he’s starting to think the other feels the same way. That thought warms him from the center of his body and he prays harder as a punishment for his desires.

When they arrive to Constantinople, the tension between them had only grown stronger but it is not uncomfortable. They both know something is going on, and it is not a matter of if it’s going to happen, but when. Nicky has improved his greek and they started to know each other. The first nights they could only talk about the situation. Nicky looked captivated how Joe cut the back of his hand with his knife and the blood dropped until the wound heals entirely, under the fascinated gaze of the muslim. Nicky excused himself and got away from the fire, searching for the air he doesn’t find to tame a heart that beats soundly every time Joe does anything in front of him. He doesn’t know when he went from trying to kill him to start understanding him to finally wanting to be closer to him. He doesn’t know but as everything that’s happening to him lately he doesn’t care if he doesn’t control the situation as long as he’s with Joe.

They talk about everything and nothing in a tavern full of people, eating hot food for the first time in too many nights. Nicky starts to appreciate Joe’s eloquence and his ability with words, adding it to the rest of Joe’s traits he already likes. He reconsiders his current situation when Joe goes out for a moment. He had stopped deceiving himself thinking that he kept Joe close to figure out their bond, although he still want to know why, but if he kept Joe close for other reasons, well, Joe doesn’t need to know. And if Joe wants to stay with him he isn’t going to prevent him from doing so. Being too absent in his own thoughts he realises late that Joe has been out for too long now and something in his gut tells him to go looking for him.

At the back of the tavern, the street remains quiet, but he hears the muffled sounds of distant hits and he quickens his pace, trusting his senses and putting out his sword. Three men had grabbed Joe and they are hitting him with fists and the pommel of their swords. Joe is insulting them in arabic, which earns him more blows in his chest and head. Nicky attacks the man that hits Joe in the head with his sword, leaving a cut in the cheek. One of the others let go of Joe and starts fighting Nicky when they hear the steel and a hoarse sound coming from Joe. Nicky turns quickly enough to see Joe’s body going limp in the floor, his throat slit, and the cold gathers in his stomach before it turns into rage and his hands start moving without him thinking. The two men fall to the floor at his feet, their bellies slit and their throats cut. Without a second thought wasted on them, Nicky kneels beside Joe and cradles his head between his hands with an unknown softness.

He’s drowning in pain and he can’t remember if anyone had killed Joe after he did. He can’t stop the feeling that it’s over. That their immortality was tied to each other and he just lost Joe. He can’t bear it. He glances over the bodies and wishes for them to be alive so that he can kill them again. The time passes slowly, too slowly, and Joe doesn’t wake up. He caresses the coarse beard with his thumbs and touches his forehead with his the moment Joe opens his eyes and exhales soundly. Relief washes through Nicky so quickly it’s almost painful and he’s glad he’s already kneeling because he feels weak all over his body. Joe tries to stand and grabs Nicky’s forearm for support. Once they are standing Nicky, still uneasy, touches his cheeks, his neck, grabs his shoulders, feeling the hard muscle beneath his fingers and his throat goes dry, and caresses his sides, feeling the warm of his skin under the clothes. He needs to know he’s okay, he’s alive, and he’s with him. Joe doesn't seem to care about the way his hands wander through his body, and turns around to see the bodies in the floor near them.

“That was you?” he asks, a bit incredulous. He knows Nicolò and he knows he’s not a cruel man.

“They had taken you away from me” he answers with low voice, searching for something in his eyes, incapable to not let his eyes look at his lips, something he had deny himself so many times. Joe is about to laugh when he feels Nicky’s lips over his and his hand goes right into his curls. The kiss is fast, uncoordinated at first, and Nicky repeats himself he just want to make sure Joe is fine, he’s alive and he’s with him. He doesn’t expect the rush of emotions washing through him the moment he touches his mouth. His lips are soft and tender against his and he doesn’t want to taste anything else ever. Joe’s mouth opens beneath him with a groan and Nicky feels the tip of his tongue entering his mouth without asking for permission. Joe kisses him filthy and full of promises and Nicky feels things he hasn’t felt before.

They stumble with each other, trying to get farther away from the street, hiding themselves away. The kiss is not slowing, it’s only growing stronger. Joe’s tongue has made his home in Nicky’s mouth and he loves it. He finds himself trapped between the wall and Joe’s solid body against his. Joe bites his lip lightly and Nicky feels himself growing harder in his breeches. He scrapes Joe’s scalp with his fingertips, marveling at how his curls feels between his fingers. He swallows Joe’s moans, slowing the pace, pecking his lips with his own, caressing them lightly with his tongue before plunging it again in his mouth, feeling Joe surrender to his rhythm, so pliant, so eager, his tongue once again at the back of his throat. He takes his hand and detangles it from his hair, touching his arm from shoulder to wrist, feeling the tension beneath it. Joe grabs his wrist, caressing his pulsepoint with the thumb, before grabbing the other hand and holding them up his head, pinning him against the wall. His fingers intertwine his with care, and it’s the mix of tenderness of his touch and roughness of his tongue that makes Nicky thinks that if there was a reason to explain their bond, it was it. Maybe God had put that man in his path not to avoid the temptation, but to fall into it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! A comment would absolutely make my day! <3


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